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OPINION

Initiative bill will empower citizens

If the Legislature won't address an issue important to a significant number of Alabamians, there's little those fellow citizens can do about it. General laws have to be passed by the Legislature and constitutional amendments, although ultimately ratified by a vote of the people, must first be passed by the Legislature.

Not so in many other states. Just last year, for example, citizens in Alaska, Arkansas and Nebraska pushed minimum wage increase measures onto the ballot. Voters in Washington state succeeded in placing on the ballot a measure requiring background checks for gun purchases.

Alabamians do not have that initiative option, but that would change under legislation introduced by Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road. The bill provides an overdue avenue for citizens to push reluctant legislators.

It would not be easy to force an issue onto the ballot under Brewbaker's bill, but it shouldn't be. An overly easy system could clutter the ballot with initiatives that don't have substantial levels of support and give undue influence to fringe elements.

The initiative process would begin with an individual elector filing a summary of the proposed law or amendment with the secretary of state, accompanied by a petition with at least 1,000 signatures of qualified voters and a $1,000 filing fee.

Once that is completed, the Alabama Law Institute will prepare the full text of the proposal. Here's where it gets interesting, and where the potential power of initiative is displayed.

Once the legislative session begins, a member of the House or Senate may opt to sponsor this legislation "in the same manner as any other sponsored legislation." That could be all it takes. The bill could be debated and passed.

If no member chooses to sponsor it, then the process of forcing it onto the ballot begins. For a general law, the registered agent would obtain petition signatures totaling at least 7 percent of the votes cast for governor in in the previous general election. That would be 82,628 signatures based on the November 2014 election.

For a constitutional amendment, the requirement is 10 percent, or 118,041 signatures based on the same election.

Signatures would have to come from all seven congressional districts, with at least 1 percent of the gubernatorial vote total in each for a general law and 1.3 percent for a constitutional amendment.

That's a high threshold, but it should be in order to demonstrate serious support for the bill.

At that point, the bill is prefiled in both houses of the Legislature and offered for consideration as is, without amendment. If it isn't passed, it appears on the ballot in the first statewide election held 90 days or more after the Legislature adjourns. Then the voters decide.